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IV Æthelred (IV Atr)
The "Laws of London" or De institutis Lundoni(a)e
Ascribed to	Æthelred the Unready, king of England
Language	Latin
Date	Early twelfth century (final version)
Manuscript(s)	Quadripartitus: London, British Library, MS Additional 49366, fos. 77v-78r; Manchester, John Rylands University Library, MS Lat. 420, fos. 63v-64r; London, British Library, MS Royal 11 B.II, fos. 157v-158v ; London, British Library, MS Cotton Titus A.XXVII, fos. 142r-142v
Genre	law code / legal learning
Period covered	Tenth & eleventh centuries

The Laws of London, otherwise known as IV Æthelred (abbreviated IV Atr) or De institutis Lundonie, is a medieval English legal text. It has been traditionally assigned to the reign of King Æthelred the Unready (978–1016), but may represent a compilation of a later date, finalised up to a century later. The work provides an important window on, among other topics, the nature of commercial exchange and international contact in London in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Provenance

Opening lines of IV Atr b in the Manchester manuscript of Quadripartitus.

In surviving form it is written in the Latin language, and extant only in the manuscripts of Quadripartitus, a twelfth-century legal compilation. In the nineteenth century it was categorised as the fourth set of statues surviving from the reign of King Æthelred the Unready, but in recent years it has been interpreted as representing two distinct underlying sources that each would have been intended to cover its own topic.

The first conjectured underlying source is a 'statement of London customs', one that sets out the trading rights of various foreign merchants and other city regulations. This has been labelled IV Æthelred a, abbreviated IV Atr a. Historian Rory Naismith argued that this section was likely developed between 1066 and 1100.

The second underlying source appears to consist of a series of regulations relating to currency and minting, labelled IV Æthelred b, abbreviated IV Atr b. Naismith thought that this text dated to the tenth century, either to the first half of the reign of Æthelred the Unready or perhaps even to the earlier reign of Edgar the Peacemaker (959–75).

References

• Statement of current London customs (chapters 1–4.2) (IV Atr a), Early English Laws (AHRC Project) by Institute of Historical Research, University of London; and Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, retrieved 2023-10-07
• Æthelred’s coinage laws (chapters 5–9.3) (IV Atr b), Early English Laws (AHRC Project) by Institute of Historical Research, University of London; and Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, retrieved 2023-10-07
• Law: Statement of current London customs (chapters 1–4.2) (IV Atr a), University of St Andrews (formerly Early English Laws (AHRC Project) by Institute of Historical Research, University of London; and Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London), retrieved 2023-10-07
• Law: Æthelred’s coinage laws (chapters 5–9.3) (IV Atr b), University of St Andrews (formerly Early English Laws (AHRC Project) by Institute of Historical Research, University of London; and Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London), retrieved 2023-10-07
• Hudson, John (2012), The Oxford History of the Laws of England. Vol. 2, 871–1216, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 019826030X
• Naismith, Rory (2019), "The Laws of London? IV Æthelred in Context", The London Journal : A Review of Metropolitan Society Past and Present, 44 (1): 1–16, doi:10.1080/03058034.2019.1569327
• Roach, Levi (2006), Æthelred the Unready, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
• Robertson, A. J. (1925), The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-15319-5
• Stenton, Frank M. (1971), Anglo-Saxon England (3rd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5
• Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. (1979), English Historical Documents. [Vol.1], c.500–1042, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, ISBN 0-19-520101-9
• Williams, Ann (2003), Æthelred the Unready: The Ill-counselled King, London: Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 1852853824
• Wormald, Patrick (2001), The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century / Volume I: Legislation and its Limits, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, ISBN 0-631-22740-7